ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1789. -Placidaque ibi demum morte quievit. There calm at length he breath'd his soul away. Virg. O MOST delightful hour by man 66 Experienc'd here below, The hour that terminates his span, 66 His folly, and his wo! "Worlds should not bribe me back to tread 66 Again life's dreary waste, "To see again my day o'erspread "With all the gloomy past. My home henceforth is in the skies, "All Heav'n unfolded to my eyes, VOL. II. So spake Aspasio, firm possess'd Of faith's supporting rod, Then breathed his soul into it's rest, The bosom of his God. He was a man among the few Sincere on virtue's side; And all his strength from Scripture drew, To hourly use applied. That rule he priz'd, by that he fear'd, Nor ever frown'd, or sad appear'd, But when his heart had rov'd. For he was frail, as thou or 1, But, when he felt it, heav'd a sigh, Such liv'd Aspasio; and at last His joys be mine, each Reader cries, When my last hour arrives: They shall be yours, my Verse replies, I Such only be your lives. Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud Soon the grave must be your home, But the monitory strain, Oft repeated in your ears, Can a truth, by all confess'd Of such magnitude and weight, Grow, by being oft impress'd, Trivial as a parrot's prate? Pleasure's call attention wins, New as ever seem our sins, Death and Judgment, Heav'n and Hell No more move us than the bell, O then, ere the turf or tomb Cover us from ev'ry eye, Spirit of instruction come,lism 1-1 Make us learn, that we must die.ba ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Happy the mortal, who has trac'd effects To their first cause, cast fear beneath his feet, Virg. THANKLESS for favours from on high, But he, not wise enough to scan To ages in a world of pain, To ages, where he goes Gall'd by affliction's heavy chain, And hopeless of repose, |